UPDATE, 10:30 p.m. — Porkopolis was his usual tenacious self, and copied me on an e-mail response he received from Ms. Garrett A.K. Silverman, George Voinovich’s Press Secretary, which is as follows:

While Sen. Voinovich thinks the current bill is far from perfect, he strongly supports border security and a way to bring people out of the shadows. He will continue to try to make this bill betterâ€”in his eyes, the status quo is not a possibility.

I don’t take a lot of comfort in that.

UPDATE: Just heard Hannity mention Voinovich as not having decided and quote (without appellation, but that’s okay in this circumstance) this post’s “comments from constituents” phrase.

If you have commented and you don’t see it, it’s because it’s on the server (old or new) other than the one you’re looking at. Sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll catch up on the comments at the new server tonight after it’s clear that the cutover is mostly complete out there in Webland.

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I called George Voinovich’s Washington Office at about 8:30 a.m. (ahem, the number is 202-224-3353).

The gentleman who answered the phone (whose name I didn’t get because his answer to my question about the senator’s planned vote on immigration-bill cloture almost threw me out of my chair) said that Voinovich has not indicated how he will vote on the measure. Voinovich voted FOR cloture (BizzyBlog link; roll call vote) a couple of weeks ago when the bill was killed the first time around.

I called the Senator’s Cleveland office and confirmed that he has not made up his mind, and is taking comments from constituents.

This is a surprise (to me, at least), because I haven’t seen Voinovich’s name on any of the “on the fence” (so to speak) lists like this one at Michelle Malkin’s place last Thursday, and had the impression he was a lost cause. Maybe he still is, and maybe he’s just posing, but it surely wouldn’t hurt to give the senator a civil and constructive piece of your mind.

8 Comments

Voinovich is the type who thinks that itâ€™s better to do something than do nothing, which is why he might end up voting for this garbage bill. He would rather vote for a terrible bill that will jeopardize this country than just enforce the current law.

[...] George Voinovich might be in play, too. One of our commenters claims to have called Ben Nelson’s office and been told that he’ll vote yes on cloture but no on the final up-or-down vote itself. That’s a transparent sham designed to give him political cover so that he can plausibly claim later that he voted “against” the bill. The critical vote is cloture, since it requires 60 to proceed; the final vote requires a simple majority, which the amnesty faction probably already has. They don’t need his vote for that but they do need it for cloture, and he’s planning on giving it to them. Here are the Senate phone numbers; even if, like me, you’re too apathetic normally to practice direct democracy, this is a special occasion. If you call Nelson’s office, you might care to mention this result from today’s Rasmussen survey, which, let’s hope to god, will prove to be the final “killer poll” needed to euthanize this sucker: Among the public, there is a bi-partisan lack of enthusiasm for the Senate bill. It is supported by 22% of Republicans, 23% of Democrats, and 22% of those not affiliated with either major party. It is opposed by 52% of Republicans, 50% of Democrats, and 48% of unaffiliateds. [...]

[...] George Voinovich might be in play, too. One of our commenters claims to have called Ben Nelson’s office and been told that he’ll vote yes on cloture but no on the final up-or-down vote itself. That’s a transparent sham designed to give him political cover so that he can plausibly claim later that he voted “against” the bill. The critical vote is cloture, since it requires 60 to proceed; the final vote requires a simple majority, which the amnesty faction probably already has. They don’t need his vote for that but they do need it for cloture, and he’s planning on giving it to them. Here are the Senate phone numbers; this is a special occasion. If you call Nelson’s office, you might care to mention this result from today’s Rasmussen survey, which, let’s hope to god, will prove to be the final “killer poll” needed to euthanize this sucker: [...]

Iâ€™ve been wondering what somebody like me can do to help stop this amnesty atrocity. I live in NY, and there is very clearly no way a conservative Republican is going to have any influence on Hilly Bob or Bucky Chucky Schumer, soâ€¦.Iâ€™m not sure why any Senators from outside NY (except maybe those with Presidential ambitions) would care about a call from a non-consituent. Iâ€™d love to do my part on this, butâ€¦how?

I just got through to the Cincinnati office and the person who answered the phone said they still had no idea how the senator will vote. She did say they have gotten over a thousand calls in the last day.

Last counts I’ve seen don’t look good as far as cloture goes. My guess is folks up for reelection in 2008 will try to have it both ways by splitting their votes between the cloture vote and the final bill.

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